New York Times

After eight days, 15 rides and who knows how much peculiarity, John Waters has wrapped his cross-country, "Zen-like," hitchhiking journey and plans to recount his adventures in a book he'd like to call "Carsick. " The New York Times just spoke to Waters, who's coming down from his adventure in San Francisco, where he has an apartment. We learned yesterday that Waters reached his destination in no small part thanks to a 20-year-old Maryland councilman , who drove the filmmaker through several legs of the trip and for his troubles, earned a key to Waters' San Francisco pad and a personal tour of the city.

Baltimore's own Stacy Keibler was front and center Thursday night for her boyfriend George Clooney's record-breaking fundraising fete for President Obama. She may have missed being at Clooney's side for the recent White House Correspondent's dinner. And she may have missed that state dinner that he attended a few months ago. But, ending speculation (at least for the moment) that the two of them are on the rocks, she wasn't going to miss this. Guests paid $40,000 each to be there.

We'll say this much: Trevor Pryce is an interesting fellow. The former Ravens defensive lineman penned a column for The New York Times this weekend , the point of which was to say that being retired at age 37 is boring. This is no doubt a fascinating piece of work. No less than Jason Whitlock, the Fox columnist who revels in his belief that he tells all of the most difficult truths, gave it a shout out on Twitter. And it's true that Pryce gives us a very vivid idea of what happens when the games are gone.

Saturday, April 21 is one of those days where there is almost too much going on. Only almost, because in reality, I don't think it's possible for too much to be going on. All day long is Record Store Day, when a bunch of new, special release records (y'know, that stuff made out of vinyl) will go on sale in limited quantities. And Celebrated Summer Records, 3620 Falls Road, will be participating, carrying new Record Store Day records by Flaming Lips, Mastodon, Deerhoof, RunDMC, The Carolina Chocolate Drops, Arcade Fire, Feist, Animal Collective, Otis Redding, Afrika Bambaataa, Of Montreal, Aretha Franklin, Rainer Maria, Tegan & Sara, The Misfits, Poison Idea, Integrity and many, many more.

It takes a few seconds to realize what you are looking at. The Sunday cover of The New York Times always features one of the very best photographs taken in the world that week, and those shots are very often quite jarring. In some faraway land, you often learn with your first sip of coffee that people are living through the unthinkable. But this Sunday's cover didn't cause an immediate, visceral reaction. This took some studying. Set in the middle of the page -- and not very deep -- was a horizontal photo.

Fernando writes Rice and Curry, a blog about Sri Lankan food and spicy cuisine. He posted just yesterday from Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo, about Sri Lankan street food. UPDATE: S.H. Fernando's "Rice & Curry: Sri Lankan Home Cooking" has been included among the New York Times notable cookbooks for 2011 .   Definitely have a look . Fernando's new book, "Rice & Curry: Sri Lankan Home Cooking" is a great gift for an adventurous home cook, especially if it's packaged with Skiz's Original Sri Lankan curry powders , which come in raw and roasted versions, which can be ordered through the Rice & Curry website.

Michael Pollan's appearance at the Baltimore Speaker Series isn't until January, but there is something I urgently need to tell you about him. The author of the "Omnivore's Dilemma" and "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto" is coming to the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall on Jan. 12, 2012 as part of the Baltimore Speaker Series . UPDATE: You don't have to wait untl January to see Michael Pollan. The New York Times contributing writer will open the Strathmore's 2011-21 Speaker Series on Wendesday, Oct. 26 at 8 p.m., in the Music Center.

I just about spit out my coffee Sunday morning when I read that you are going to start charging for access to the online version of The Sun. The Sun website is the worst website I have ever tried to use. Have you ever looked at the Washington Post or the New York Times websites to see how it's done? You couldn't have or yours wouldn't be the way it is. It is very difficult to find any article when one clicks on "Print Edition. " Unless it is an article that is also available online, it is virtually impossible.

Good thing Ron Shapiro isn't a told-you-so kinda guy. Not after The New York Times reported recently on how Chinese companies are finding a back door into the U.S. stock market . Shapiro, a prominent sports agent-attorney whose clients have included Cal Ripken Jr., warned about the same sort of stock market shenanigans 42 years ago, as lead author of a Maryland Law Review article titled, “The 'Going Public Through the Back Door' Phenomenon...

In the spring of 2006, as Katie Couric was ascending to the CBS Evening News as the first woman solo anchor, Jill Abramson - who just happened to be the first woman managing editor of The New York Times - wondered aloud in a Times essay when the qualifier "first woman" would no longer be worth mentioning. We have women Supreme Court justices and women heads of corporations, and we pretty nearly had a woman president. But when Ms. Abramson was elevated early this month to the executive editorship of The New York Times, all the headlines proclaimed that she was the first woman to hold the most hallowed job in American journalism.